News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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It may be next fall, or perhaps in February 2025, but local voters will be asked to decide on forming a new taxing district to support local ambulance service. Fire Chief Ryan Fish told the city council Tuesday night that a lot of work needs to be done between now and then, but demand for services is only growing, and at a rate that can’t be supported long-term doing business the way it has been done for decades. In 2015, Grand Coulee’s ambulance service went on 391 calls. In 2023, the number was 628, including only 240 within the city, accordi...
Things have changed over the last four decades in law enforcement. John Tufts has witnessed the changes. The police chief in Grand Coulee is retiring in March, and agreed to chat about what he's learned along the way. There's less respect for people in general now, a change that started about the time cell phones became popular 25 years or so ago. Tufts isn't talking about respect for police, just for people in general, and it's linked to a lack of communication, linked to age, which has an...
The United States produces the cleanest and safest energy in the world from traditional resources like oil and natural gas as well as from emerging resources and innovative technologies. This is something we should be celebrating, but instead, President Biden has waged an unprecedented war on American energy producers since taking office, which has caused our energy prices to skyrocket in order to appease the extreme climate lobby. On January 26, 2024, President Biden announced he will pause all pending approvals of liquified natural gas (LNG)...
Winters in Palouse were much worse when I was growing up than what they are experiencing now. I can remember when we got our first refrigerator. That was in 1938. My mother was still using it in 1971. There was an emblem on the front telling it was a Philco Advanced Design refrigerator. It was still being used when my mother died. I doubt that many refrigerators last that long. It was a big deal for me. It meant that I didn’t have to go to the icehouse for a block of ice a couple times a week. It wasn’t unusual for snow drifts in the middle of...
In 2017, I wrote a column titled: “America needs more welders and fewer philosophers.” It was a slogan Florida Sen. Marco Rubio used in his 2016 presidential campaign to call attention to the need for more skilled workers. Rubio hit the nail on the head without disrespecting philosophers. The American Welding Society (AWS) estimated our country now requires 400,000 new welders. This scarcity is primarily due to the substantial number of skilled workers retiring and fewer young men and women entering technical training programs. The enc...
The Lady Raiders came to the end of their basketball postseason Saturday when the Davenport Lady Gorillas overtook them in the third quarter of their District 6/7 Crossover game at West Valley High School in Spokane Valley. Davenport won the loser-out contest, 64-44. The Raider girls (12-12) had come out strong early in the game, leading by nine at one point in the first period, but Davenport (15-9) reduced their deficit to four by halftime, 24-20. The Gorillas tied it at 24 early in the third,...
People noticed police activity Tuesday as multiple patrol cars converged on cars parked outside Hometown Pizza in mid-afternoon. Two people were arrested there. An officer who said he was with the Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team said they were not through. They headed to Fourth Street in Electric City where a house was surrounded by police cars. Three people inside the house were in custody briefly but were released. An expected press release about the event was not available before...
It became clear as crystal last night. Within the time allotted for one city council meeting in Electric City, at least three issues were discussed that require regional attention of two, three, or four local cities, all of which would benefit from cooperation among or between them. That’s why interest in at least one meeting among all their leaders, with the public invited, is an encouraging sign. The new kid on the block, Grand Coulee Mayor Mike Eylar, proposed last week at the Regional Board of Mayors meeting, that all the councils come t...
Grand Coulee’s new mayor, Mike Eylar, has proposed a joint meeting with the city councils of four local cities. Eylar brought the idea up at the Regional Board of Mayors meeting Wednesday. He said he and many local elected officials attended a training at Grand Coulee City Hall recently when he was surprised to see many officials from other cities there too. “It was exciting to have a good portion of the various city councils in attendance,” he said. He first broached the idea to Mayor Bob Poch, of Coulee Dam, who said he liked the idea. “Mayb...
A study on a senior housing project is moving forward with a $350,000 grant through the state Department of Commerce, put into the state budget by the Legislature at the request of 7th District Rep. Joel Kretz (R-Wauconda). It gained bipartisan support and was included in the 2023-2025 biennial budget and signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee. Center Senior Living President Cheryl Hoffman said the “funds provide planning dollars for a study to assess operating costs of an assisted living and memory care facility in Grand Coulee.” The project got...
Two propositions on local ballots passed by nearly the same results Tuesday. Electric City's Proposition 1, to de-annex four large parcels of land the city annexed several years ago, passed by about 81%, 169-40. Nespelem School District 14's Proposition 1, seeking a replacement levy, also passed by a little over 81%, 62-14. Electric City sought to partially undo the annexation it achieved in 2009, shrinking its boundaries to exclude four parcels owned by state or federal governments. They are...
Having family in Grand Coulee, I read The Grand Coulee Star opinion piece “Those early postal days” (Feb. 7 issue). I can relate to the penny postcards. My late grandmother Dora (White) Marples had a shoebox full of them. Most were from her twin daughters Ida and Ina Marples. A few were from her eldest son Bill Marples (my Dad). I enjoyed seeing the unique stamps and designs as I was growing up. When I was age 6, a first-class stamp cost 6 cents. When I was 10 years old, postage was 10 cents. This parallel theme occurred when I was ages 15,...
Hello, I am Silas Powers. For the complex and difficult work of ensuring that all state routes, interstates, county, city and other roadways of Washington state are properly striped I have great respect. Why do the roadways show the following signs? • Lack of striping altogether • Heavily faded striping • Completely faded striping • Lack of retro reflectivity • Almost total invisibility of striping at night with light rain • Interference of road repairs or sealing with visibility of striping • Low quality of paint (in my opinion a 3 out of 10...
Affordable, plentiful energy is the root of a society that enables economic growth. It’s easy to forget our community’s biggest asset even though it affects everything we do. Now more than ever, our customers need to understand hydropower’s role in the rapidly changing energy landscape, and how we’re preparing for the future. It’s no secret that the public utility districts of Chelan, Douglas and Grant counties provide very low electric rates. Thanks to the vision of local citizens who voted to create public utility districts, and the commi...
They better start making them soon because Lake Roosevelt will be winning them. Look ahead seven years or so and a new batch of wrestlers will be ready here. Victor Landeros, with the help of parents, is preparing 50-60 kids to become a dynamic wrestling force at Lake Roosevelt. Victor was a force of his own when he roamed the halls here. He’s got wrestling in his blood. He’s been building on the little kids’ wrestling program, Coulee Crushers, for both boys and girls. It’s paying off with large turnouts and with good results in tournam...
The Lake Roosevelt Raiders won the District 6 tournament championship for the second year in a row Friday in Omak, after a win at home on Tuesday. "We're fast," said a pleased Coach Ed Wolfe amid the jubilation on the Omak court, where the 2024 District 6 2B Boys Basketball Tournament was held for a week. The Raiders had just trounced the Tonasket Tigers 81-47 to take the title after having beaten Okanogan on Tuesday 91-69. The win will send the Raiders (20-1) to the Districts 6/7 Crossover...
Elmer City residents met recently to hear about planning efforts for the town's parks and about early results of an ongoing survey on park preferences in the town. City planner Kurt Danison of Highland Associates said the room full of people Jan. 24 was a better turnout than he usually sees for planning meetings in much larger towns, and that interest is what's needed. He said the town so far had 52 people who had responded to a survey on their park preferences, 29 in one day. Nearly 71 percent...
A sea of red, white and blue covered the Capitol steps as hundreds of Washingtonians proudly waved American flags and demanded hearings on six initiatives that would roll back taxes, give parents more rights and police more authority. The initiatives funded by the political action group Let’s Go Washington all received the requisite number of signatures to be approved for consideration but have yet to receive a hearing from the Legislature. In all, 2.6 million citizens signed the petitions. Republicans say the Constitution demands that i...
Sometimes a game is not just a game. That was especially true Monday night, when even as the Lake Roosevelt Lady Raiders were wrapping up a win in basketball, on the stage people were preparing hundreds of candles for afterward. Is everything made softer by candlelight, even grief? Perhaps. A community of many who cared about young Ambrose Moore experienced that when more than half the gym was ringed by those holding those candles for him after a weekend mourning the 17-year-old who ended his life Friday. The community shared its grief, and,...
So, you thought by cutting the cable-TV cord you’d avoid exorbitant monthly fees and those dreaded commercial interruptions. Now, you’ve subscribed to so many streaming services that your monthly tab is higher than before, and it turns out that’s the least of your problems. Lately you’ve noticed ads pouring into streaming. Recently, subscribers to Amazon Prime were confronted with the news: “Movies and TV shows included with Prime now have limited ads. You can upgrade to be ad free for $2.99 a month.” All of this relates to a fundamental truth...
Box 92 was our portal to the outside world. I was fascinated with what I could do through the mail. They were the days of the Penny Postcard and the thrill of receiving mail, addressed to me. My aunt Voe was the postmaster at Palouse. She always greeted me when I came in. Actually, I think she greeted everyone. There were not many secrets back then. It was like the phones and the party lines. Everyone knew other peoples’ business, but who really cared. It was the days when people could collect, over time, dishes until they had a set. A real D...
Coulee Medical Center, along with a couple dozen other public hospitals in Washington state, has been ordered by the state attorney general to provide surgical abortions. The hospital has offered abortion by medicine, but not surgery. That violates the Reproductive Privacy Act, according to Attorney General Bob Ferguson who wrote to CMC in November, stating it was in violation of the law because it fails to offer “substantially equivalent” care to those seeking an abortion, a standard it must meet under the law. Any hospital that can offer to... Full story
Each year, Americans throw away more than three billion batteries constituting 180,000 tons of hazardous material. The situation is likely to get worse as the world shifts to lithium batteries to power a massive influx of electric vehicles (EV). It needs immediate attention. Everyday-green.com reported more than 86,000 tons of single-use alkaline batteries (AAA, AA, C and D) are thrown away yearly. They power electronic toys and games, portable audio equipment and flashlights and make up 20...
I attended last Friday’s senior night at Lake Roosevelt High School. The place was packed and the Raiders won all three basketball games. I went to support my great grandson, Damon Landeros, who is a senior, and who has played four years for the Raiders. It was quite a night, I watched three games and enjoyed probably an hour of recognition of seniors. It will be a night that these seniors will long remember. What struck me was the display of friendship. It was a night that brought friendships back. After the third game, a lot of people s...
As a third-generation farmer, I understand how important agriculture is for families, jobs, and trade in Central Washington. Our district’s farmers and producers grow the highest quality hay, wheat and more than 300 specialty crops, making agriculture a vital part of our economy. But foreign adversaries are purchasing U.S. farmland at an alarming rate, posing a threat to Central Washington’s most crucial industry, and the federal government is struggling to keep up. Last week the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a rep...
